A certain dog enthusiast (Caesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer) would probably tell you that while these dogs were predisposed to fighting, they don't do it because they particularly like doing it, nor because it is "in their nature." It is like a gang. Nobody is born wanting to be in a gang...they are twisted and mentally tortured into those desires. The same can be said about fighting dogs. They are born blank slates; good owners can make them good dogs, and bad owners can make them the mental, antisocial freaks that they are now.

As for the selective breeding thing, is that really what everybody's so miffed about? There's little doubt that he's killing/having them killed in an inhumane manner (I just don't see those guys administering lethal injections to their rejects...maybe it's just me), but I would be mad about the way they had to be treated to become what they are before I was angered about the way in which they were killed.br

 

"As for the selective breeding thing, is that really what everybody's so miffed about? There's little doubt that he's killing/having them killed in an inhumane manner"

That's what I wondered about in the first post I made on this issue. I hadn't really considered that aspect of it, but every news report on the topic, especially ones delivered orally, always stressed the "beaten, strangled with a chain, flipped over to break their backs..." etc. So apparently that was the hook; the cruelty to the dogs who weren't good fighters. Perhaps it seems worse (to some) since it's humans doing it to the poor defenseless trusting animals?

 

I couldn't care less what someone breeds dogs for - beauty or dogfighting - what's the problem?

Dogs are great, many of them do different things. Yorkies are 4 lb. cuties to their owners, Great Danes are strapping giants to their owners.

Fighting is part of life. The lion will eat you, the crocodile will eat you, the pirhana will eat you, if you do not fight.

Why is it illegal for Vick to participate in a regular part of life?

My verdict: let him go !!!!!!!

 

Well papa, most animals don't fight for the sake of fighting. Animals only attack humans because they're pathetically easy targets. Seriously...we've got to be the weakest inhabitants of this rock. If not for technology, we'd never survive. Point being, even things built from stem to stern for fighting avoid it if it is likely that they'll be injured in the process. Even hierarchal fights are pretty harmless to the combatants, even if they look rough.

I honestly don't give a crap what happens to that idiot myself. Why would someone so filthy rich even DO something so obviously illegal, anyways? They should throw the book at him on principle. That said, dogfighting should be a crime as they were being treated and executed in a brutal manner. Remember the saying, "serial killers start out on animals?" It is just something that should at least remain a taboo so we can weed out the sickos a little more easily.

Oh, and to correct an error in my first post, the guy's name is Cesar Milan...he's Mexican, not Italian. ;)

 

I am given to agree that the fighting is much worse than the culling. (I can't believe there are people who think dog fighting is "a part of life." Extraordinarily stupid or callous or both? I just can't decide!) But I think I understand how culling factors in to the outrage, at least into mine. It's all part of treating the dogs like they aren't living, breathing creatures who can think and feel, but as a commodity, a thing for entertainment. If you have a thing and it doesn't work how you want it to, you can throw it out. You can do so indefinitely, aside from financial or sustainability concerns. But that's no way to treat a living creature.